KALAMAZOO – Shane Berschbach said this was exactly what Western Michigan University needed.

The Broncos snapped a five-game winless streak with their 4-2 win Friday and capitalized on their revived power play Saturday to pick up a 3-0 win over Central Collegiate Hockey Association foe Ferris State University at Lawson Arena.

“We’re looking at these last four games before Christmas and we want to go into Christmas rolling,” Berschbach said. “This was a huge weekend knocking off No. 6 Ferris.”

No. 12-ranked Western Michigan (8-4-4, 6-4-2 CCHA) not only found its footing on the power play this weekend, but got great play from its defense and freshman goalie Frank Slubowski.

WMU coach Andy Murray had a hard time finding any major faults in his team’s effort Saturday.

“I thought we played a pretty complete game,” Murray said. “You’re always looking for that best-ever one, but tonight was as good as we’ve played for a while.

“The big thing is that we played well with the puck tonight .We protected it. When you’re protecting the puck, it’s the best form of defense.”

Andy Murray

With the series sweep, WMU takes sole possession of third place in the CCHA standings with 22 points.

With its sweep of Lake Superior State, Ohio State moved into first place with 26 points and the Lakers (20) fell to fourth place. Ferris State (19) fell to fifth place while second-place Notre Dame (24) was swept by nonconference foe Northeastern.

After a scoreless first period, everything seemed to come together for the Broncos in the middle period.

Western Michigan’s grind-it-out offense had been screaming for help to no avail from its power play during the previous five games entering the Ferris State series, but against the CCHA’s best penalty-killing unit, the Broncos finally took advantage of the extra man on the ice this weekend.

Western Michigan’s CCHA-worst power play (7.3 percent entering the weekend) scored on its first two chances Saturday. The Brown and Gold finished 2-for-3 in the game and were 3-for-9 with the man advantage on the weekend.

“We did get a few more chances to practice it in this series than we had in the previous series,” Murray said. “We’ve had chances in all the games and we finally put the puck in the net.”

Freshman forward Justin Kovacs took the puck to the left side of the net and sent it into traffic in front of Motte and his shot deflected off fellow freshman Will Kessel’s skate and into the back of the net 4:06 into the second period.

“We’ve been trying to do the same thing all year,” said Berschbach, who recorded two assists in the win. “It worked a lot last year, so we’re trying to do it. It took some time to get things going, but we popped the cherry tonight.”

The Broncos produced again on their next power play two minutes later when junior Dane Walters, standing in front of Ferris State’s goal, took a pass from Chase Balisy and threw the puck over Motte’s shoulder 5:58 into the middle frame.

Walters said the team’s special teams gave everyone on the bench a boost.

Dane Walters

“If you do capitalize, it sends the team in the right direction,” said Walters, who scored the team’s third goal with 3:43 left in the game. “It’s an energy boost. I’d say it’s the same thing killing penalties. If you kill two minutes successfully, it also gives us a boost in the positive direction. Luckily, we’ve been able to turn our power play around and get a few in this weekend.”

The Broncos’ defense was not to be outdone as the Bulldogs recorded just one shot on goal through the first nine minutes of the second period and if not for a pair of WMU penalties, they might not have gotten a good look the entire 20 minutes.

Western Michigan had a 14-4 edge in shots in the second period and finished the game with a 42-25 advantage.

“I thought we really capitalized on sustaining pressure in the offensive zone,” Murray said of the second. “We got some great changes and we were staying ahead of them on the changes and making them play tired out there. They’re such a feisty hard-working team. They make you earn it.

“We kind of dominated the second period, but you’re always worried because you know they’re going to come at you. They came out in the third, I think the coaches got them refocused, and they came at us hard at the start of the third.”

The Broncos killed all four penalties Saturday and held the Bulldogs scoreless with the man advantage on all seven chances in the series.

Freshman goalie Frank Slubowski finished with 25 saves to earn his second and the Broncos’ second shutout this season.

“He’s been outstanding for us,” Walters said. “We’re kind of riding Frank right now. It’s kind of hard to take the game away from a guy throwing up shutouts. It’s awesome and it’s good for the team.”

C.J. Motte finished with 39 saves for Ferris State, who won the faceoff margin 35-31.